Found Beauty
by Animegrl123
Summary: She took the mirror that the blonde girl handed her, expecting to see nothing more than her same old boring reflection staring back at her. Still, she couldn't help it as her heart grew heavy with hope before she turned the looking glass to her face.


**I was watching "Popular" earlier today on youtube, and when Elphaba suddenly leaves the stage, I began to wonder: where does she go? Why does she go? So, I decided to sit down and write out my own answers to these questions. Now, after writing this in about an hour to an hour and a half, this is what I have come up with. I hope you like it, and I would absolutely love reviews. The only way I can know what I did right and wrong is if you tell me. But whether you let me know or not, I hope you enjoy, "Found Beauty."**

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><p>"Why, Miss Elphaba. Look at you. You're beautiful."<p>

The green girl rolled her eyes, certain that Galinda was just messing around with her. She took the mirror that the petite blonde girl handed her, expecting to see nothing more than her same old boring reflection staring back at her. Still, though she pretended not to notice, she couldn't help but feel her heart grow suddenly heavy with hope before she turned the small looking glass to her face.

She knew that hope was foolish. As a young girl, people had often tried to make her look beautiful. Her mother and father alike had taken her aside, trying everything that they could think of to hide, or at least diminish, her green complexion. Though they hadn't had many tools to work with, Elphaba's mother had been able to acquire a bit of make up for her every once in a while when she was little, but no matter how hard her parents tried or what color combination they could think of, her pale green skin never looked any better. Her brown eyes simply looked like two muddy pools set into a green field, and she had learned to live with that, and so had her father, though he never acknowledged her as anything but a mistake. So by the age of ten, everyone had stopped trying to make her look beautiful, and instead she had immersed herself into the world of the written word, knowing that those books that she loved could never judge her.

So even as her heartbeat picked up its pace a little as she turned the mirror around, Elphaba's mind knew that there was no use in getting that hope up. However, Elphaba couldn't stop the sharp intake of breath that she took when she finally saw her reflection.

Galinda had been right: she did look beautiful. Sure, she was nowhere near Galinda's ethereal beauty, but she, Elphaba, actually passed as pretty; perhaps even good-looking. Her raven black hair, which usually lay limp against her back in her very proper braid now rested loosely against her shoulders, flowing down to frame her face lovingly. The pink flower that Galinda had given to her stood out bright against the dark background, giving her entire face a softer glow of green than ever before.

Galinda had used no make-up to change the shade of her skin: of this Elphaba was positive. The only substance that Galinda had used at all had been a bit of lip balm to add a slight shine to her lips. Yet, somehow she could see that her cheeks glowed a bit brighter than ever before, and even her green lips, never before noticed by even herself, seemed fuller, and a hint of a smile could be seen tucked away in their corners. Her brown eyes, always the shade of mud before to Elphaba, seemed to shine with a new light, as if a new hope had been lit in them. She dared to think that they even seemed to be a shade lighter, almost the color of creamy chocolate.

Elphaba noticed these changes all in a quick instant. A large grin began to break out on her face, but just as quickly, she reined it back in. What if this reflection, so different from the one that she was used to, was a trick somehow? Perhaps just a trick of the light. Yes, suddenly Elphaba was sure that that was what it was: it was simply the lighting in the room that had changed her appearance so suddenly.

Abruptly, the young green woman stood up from her spot on Galinda's bed. Just as abruptly she shoved the little looking glass back into the blonde's hair.

"I have to go," she muttered quickly, before making a speedy departure out of the room, leaving Galinda behind to wonder what had just happened.

As the door to her dorm room shut firmly behind her, Elphaba leaned back against it, her heart still beating quickly in her chest. In the hallway where she stood, a single light bulb above her flickered inconsistently above, lighting the hallway up one moment, and then sinking into darkness the next before it lit back up in the next moment.

Elphaba closed her eyes, trying desperately to get control of herself. It had just been a simple reflection, a trick of the light, so why was her body getting so worked up over it? She simply couldn't understand; it wasn't logical in anyway, yet she couldn't control how her pulse raced and her heart hoped.

She had to know if it was real. She had to see her reflection out of that room. In there, she had finally found the acceptance that she had (perhaps unknowingly) been looking for for her entire life. Perhaps that was why her reflection looked different to her when she looked into that little mirror. After all, what had Galinda really done to change her appearance? Make her toss her hair around a little? Put on a bit of lip balm? Place a single flower in her hair? None of these things should have changed anything about how Elphaba looked, so it simple _must _have been a trick of the light.

Nodding to herself, Elphaba straightened up once again, and turned down the small hallway, now with a set mission in mind. Moving swiftly and with a purpose, it wasn't but a minute or two before Elphaba found herself standing outside one of the bathrooms that the girls on her floor all had to share. Seeing the door open, she quickly stepped inside, closing the door firmly behind her, before she reached out to the side and flipped the light switch that stuck out of the wall, bathing the room in light.

Taking a deep breath to try to once again calm her nerves, Elphaba counted to ten, and then slowly turned around, to face the large mirror above the porcelain sink.

Starring back at her in the mirror were two wonderfully chocolate brown eyes, shining behind long black lashes. Her cheeks shined with a slightly darker shade of green than usual, enhancing a number of different green hues from her skin, all that seemed to fit together wonderfully with one another. This time the smile wasn't hiding in the corners of her lips: a bright grin had broken out across her face the moment that she had seen the lush black hair that framed her face still, causing the brown of her eyes to shine even brighter in her green face. Water began to build up in her eyes, but Elphaba didn't care: she let the tears of joy slide gently down her cheeks, leaving a trail that sparkled when the light in the room bounced off of it.

A watery chuckle broke through Elphaba's parted teeth, showing white sparkling teeth that stood out nicely against the green of her mouth.

As she continued to laugh in delight, Elphaba couldn't tear her gaze away from her own reflection. Never before in her lifetime had she been able to look at it, and see anything more than her green skin. Never before had she noticed the white of her teeth, or the sparkle of her eyes. Never before had she been able to look at herself and believe that she was anything more than a hideous green girl who was different from every single person around her; never before had she been able to look at her reflection and like what she saw. Now however…

She no longer saw hideousness. She saw mystery, and intelligence… And beauty.

"Why Miss Galinda," she whispered to her reflection, as a fresh stream of tears fell from her eyes, "Perhaps there is some magic in you after all."


End file.
